Both the Republican and Democratic conventions are now over. It is time for some additional reflections. First, as per the period of McGovern, the rainbow coalition, Jesse Jackson’s attempt to run and now Bernie Sanders, the reformist and populist left is left holding an empty balloon, deflated by promises to build a movement or a political revolution. These promises are nothing other than demagoguery. Some of these people will hibernate till the next election, hoping that we forget this election experience. Some will hop on the bandwagon of other insignificant candidates, still pushing their opportunist/populist political line.

A response to an assertion that the fundamental contradiction in the capitalist mode of production is socialized production vs. private appropriation.

By Jan Makandal

(April 17, 2013)

Is it semantic or an actual divergence?

I haven’t yet seen any analysis proving that the fundamental contradiction is between socialized production and private ownership. What is socialized production under capitalism? This is a question anyone should ask. Is it because a group of agents of production are performing a collective task to transform raw materials into a finished product, which in turn will become a commodity? And is that act in itself called socialized production?(more…)

1) The contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie (on a world scale, and within particular countries):

We are still at this stage, though of course many moments and conjunctures have passed under the bridge since its beginning. This is a universal contradiction that needs to be applied in each particular social formation, based on the interest of the international proletariat — Proletarian Internationalism. Proletarian organizations need to analyze their own social formations, and simultaneously construct their political line to organize for proletarian revolution. The fundamental task of a structured proletarian organization is to organize for revolution in its own social formation, as part of an international revolution. This is obvious if we understand that the fundamental contradiction is the proletariat facing the bourgeoisie, and the principal contradiction is the need to crush the state apparatus of the capitalist class, by the masses under the leadership of the proletariat. It is clear that any deviation from that universal line is revisionism.(more…)

The confusion of a phenomenon with the tendencies produced by that phenomenon
By Jan Makandal

(April 11, 2013)

All phenomena, all objective realities, have a dynamic of development. That development goes through different periods, stages and moments. And the dynamics of development, within all the stages and moments, are constantly producing tendencies.

In the evolution of phenomena, these tendencies will move in a direction toward either disappearing or consolidating, fundamentally because of class struggle. One example is slavery as a form of social relations. Slavery was a tendency of class-divided society, as a social relation in production that consolidated for the reproduction of the main phenomenon. It dissipated as soon as other tendencies became more profitable for the reproduction of those class-divided societies (transitioned to capitalism in the US, and to feudalism in other social formations such as Haiti).(more…)

The principal contradiction is the contradiction characterizing a stage of a phenomenon. It is considered principal, because we must address it in order for the phenomenon to pass to a new stage of development. In a specific stage, the principal contradiction determines the evolution of other contradictions. Hence, all other contradictions play a secondary role in the transition from one stage to another. We identify the principal contradiction as conjuncturally determinant, meaning it concentrates and condenses all the other contradictions, and it must be addressed in order to resolve other contradictions.(more…)

Critical thoughts on Mao’s conceptions of contradictions, for the consolidation of the theory of contradictionsBy Jan Makandal

(April 6, 2013)

Mao is one of the proletarian revolutionaries who defined contradictions. It is an objective advancement and an objective contribution to the struggle of the international proletariat. Many other intellectuals did contribute, as well, to the consolidation of the theory of contradictions. One of the fundamental differences between those intellectuals and Mao is that in the case of the others, their contributions to the theory of contradiction were not constructed inside the struggle, as was Mao’s as he waged struggle inside the CCP for the triumph of a proletarian line. (more…)

In this period, we are witnessing an ossification and stagnation of proletarian revolutionary theory. The effects of this, in reality and objectively, are dogmatism, opportunism and populism. One of the consequences is that Mao’s contributions are cast in stone, making us incapable of going from a dialectical relation of general to specific and specific to general, in order to elevate the theory. That dialectical relation is the underpinning element for theory’s constant mode of rectification and consolidation. (more…)

Critical thoughts on Mao’s conceptions of contradictions, for the consolidation of the theory of contradictions:

Mao is one of the proletarian revolutionaries who defined contradictions. It is an objective advancement and an objective contribution to the struggle of the international proletariat. Many other intellectuals did contribute, as well, to the consolidation of the theory of contradictions. One of the fundamental differences between those intellectuals and Mao is that in the case of the others, their contributions to the theory of contradiction were not constructed inside the struggle, as was Mao’s as he waged struggle inside the CCP for the triumph of a proletarian line.

All contributions to, and all definitions of, the theory of contradictions are fundamental to the struggle of the proletariat. (more…)